1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a knock control apparatus for suppressing a knock occurring in an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, it is known that when a knock occurs during operation of an internal combustion engine, vibrations of a natural frequency band will occur according to the bore size of each cylinder of the internal combustion engine or the mode of vibration of the knock, wherein a knock phenomenon generated in the internal combustion engine is detected by the use of a vibration sensor (hereinafter referred to as a “knock sensor”) which is directly mounted on the engine block of the internal combustion engine.
In the above-mentioned knock detection apparatus, a knock is detected by carrying out arithmetic operation such as discrete Fourier transform (DFT: Discrete Fourier Transform), etc., with respect to an output of the knock sensor, and measuring the vibration strength of the natural frequency band of the internal combustion engine.
In addition, as a characteristic of the internal combustion engine, it is also known that when ignition timing is advanced, the output torque of the internal combustion engine can be improved, but a knock tends to be easily generated, and on the contrary, when ignition timing is retarded, the output torque of the internal combustion engine decreases but a knock becomes difficult to occur.
Accordingly, in the past, there has been adopted a knock control apparatus in which in cases where a knock is detected, ignition timing is corrected to a retard side thereby to suppress a knock, and after non-detection of a knock is confirmed, the ignition timing is returned to an advance side, thereby making it possible to suppress torque reduction to a minimum extent.
In this case, by correcting the ignition timing to the retard side upon detection of a knock, and making the ignition timing return to the advance side at the time of non-detection of a knock, it becomes possible to control the operation of the internal combustion engine at knock limit ignition timing by which a maximum torque is outputted, while suppressing the occurrence of knock.
In the above-mentioned knock control apparatus, a knock determination threshold value for determining an occurrence of a knock is obtained as follows. That is, peak values of the vibration strength are detected in a knock detection zone which has been set in advance as a crank angle range in which vibrations resulting from a knock generally appear to a remarkable extent, and further, the knock determination threshold value is calculated based on fundamental statistics (an average value, a standard deviation, etc.) of the peak values calculated by carrying out filtering processing of the peak values over a plurality of ignition cycles.
However, depending upon the operating state of the internal combustion engine, a vibration not resulting from a knock (hereinafter referred to as “noise vibration”) may be superposed in the knock detection zone with a larger strength than that of a vibration resulting from an actual knock. In this case, there has been a problem that there occurs a defect such as mis-detection of a knock, omission of detection, or the like.
In other words, it becomes difficult to detect an actual knock vibration, due to the superposition of noise vibration.
Accordingly, in the past, there has been proposed a technique in which the above-mentioned defect is eliminated to improve knock detectability, by removing a noise vibration waveform from vibration waveforms detected by a knock sensor (for example, refer to a first patent document to be described later).
In a conventional apparatus described in the first patent document, first of all, a knock vibration waveform generated resulting from a knock and a noise vibration waveform generated resulting from the operation of component parts of the internal combustion engine have been stored in advance.
Subsequently, the position of the occurrence of noise vibration is specified by making a comparison between vibration waveforms which have been detected by the knock sensor within a predetermined crank angle range around the center of the position of the occurrence of noise vibration predicted based on the control state of the component parts, and the noise vibration waveform stored in advance.
Then, the noise vibration waveform is removed by subtracting the noise vibration waveform stored in advance from the vibration waveform at the position of the occurrence of noise vibration thus specified, among the vibration waveforms detected by the knock sensor.
Finally, an actual state of occurrence of a knock is determined by making a comparison between the vibration waveform from which the noise vibration waveform has been removed and the knock vibration waveform stored in advance.
According to this, in cases where noise vibration is superposed, it is determined with a high degree of accuracy whether a knock has occurred or not.
However, in order to remove noise vibration in an accurate manner, the position of vibration of noise and the adaptation of the waveform thereof are required, but the noise vibration waveform generated resulting from the operation of the component parts may also change depending upon the states of the individual component parts. In addition, it may also change depending upon installation distances between the knock sensor and the individual component parts, or the operating state of the internal combustion engine.
In this manner, it is difficult to adapt and store, in advance through experiments, etc., noise vibration waveforms which change in a variety of ways according to individual situations. In addition, even if such adaptation can be made, a lot of adaptation man hours are required, and besides, actually generated noise vibration waveforms can not be removed in a suitable manner, resulting in a possibility that knock detectability may get worse.
In addition, in cases where a noise vibration waveform and a vibration waveform which is generated resulting from a knock are superposed with each other at the same timing, it becomes difficult to specify the noise vibration waveform, and besides, it also becomes difficult to specify the knock vibration waveform.
Further, as noise vibrations generated resulting from other than a knock, there can be considered not only a noise vibration generated resulting from the operation of the component parts, but also a noise vibration resulting from the combustion of the internal combustion engine as well as a noise vibration inherent in the internal combustion engine, etc., but the waveforms of these noise vibrations change in their shapes in a variety of ways, and besides, in many cases, it is also difficult to specify the positions of generation thereof. As a result, noise vibration waveforms can not be removed in an appropriate manner thus giving rise to a possibility that knock detectability may get worse.